My Impossible

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Well, once again, everybody, good morning. Good to be with you guys today. I love baptisms. We’ve had four baptisms today. Isn’t that awesome? God is good. He’s on the move and we’re excited about that. It’s good to be here though. I was gone for two weeks and I had two Sundays off. I just appreciate you guys giving me a chance to get away for a little while and refresh and recharge. It’s always good and it’s great to come back. I felt like I kind of had to come back because this is like the dramatic conclusion, the ending of this epic story we’ve been on through the life of Moses. And we’re in this series called Greater Than, where we’re journeying along with Moses and discovering as he does, a life greater than we know with the God who’s greater than we know. And it’s just been an awesome story, man.

And here we get to this dramatic closure moment between God and Pharaoh, Pharaoh. Oh, babe. Anyone? Nobody? Nobody went to church camp. All right. There you go. Yeah. You know the song. Yeah. Anyway, I’m dying up here. Yeah, but it’s this dramatic showdown between God and Pharaoh when he rescues his people in this spectacular event of the waters parting and the people crossing on dry land, like a wall of water on both sides. And I think when we’re in here in this space, we go, oh yeah, that happens. Okay, God parted the sea and that’s what happened. And that’s great. But I think if we’re in those more introspective moments, those moments where we’re driving the car and we’re just kind of lost in the thoughts or laying in bed, just lost in our thoughts, and we think about this thing called the Red Sea or a miracle like this, it kind of gives us pause.

And if we’re honest, we’ll go, yeah, this presses on my reason. This really presses on my logic. And can this really happen? This is so sweet. I mean, did it really happen like that? Or is this like a myth that grew over time, a legend? Is this just like a metaphor? Or is this a real event? It’s so hard to believe water parting and stacking. And I would contend that those are not questions we should be afraid of because God does miracles again and again and again all throughout scripture. And he does these miracles to force these questions on us. Can he do this? Does this really happen? Is this real? And I think we’re supposed to be asking this question because of where it leads us. And so today we’re just going to have a conversation about this thing called miracles. And I’ll be honest with you guys, I struggle saying the word miracles.

There’s something in my accent, I say miracles. And if I ever say, I’m not talking about marigolds like the flower, I’m talking about miracles, the power. Okay? So if I say miracles at any moment, what I mean is miracles. And I’m working on it. I’m working on it. So just so you know, I don’t mean to confuse you, but today I just want to have a conversation about miracles and what they are, why they’re important, why they matter, why we can’t dismiss them. Because I think after asking these questions, it leads to an interesting application of my hope at the very least, is that all of us walk out of here feeling encouraged and strengthened in our faith. That’s what I hope to accomplish.

MIRACLE DEFINED

Now, first, we need to probably define this word miracles because we overuse it. We use the word all the time.

We use the word like we will say, it’s a miracle. I found a parking spot in the parking lot. It’s a miracle my kids didn’t fight on the way to church. It’s a miracle that all of these. Those aren’t miracles. Those are favorable events. Those are fortunate events, but they’re not miracles. And then we’ll say, oh, it’s the miracle of life when a baby is born. No, it’s not. It’s not a miracle. We would say that God has designed us. You could say that God’s power is on display, but it’s not a miracle in the narrow sense of the word. In other words, when they’re standing at the Red Sea, they’re watching the waves lap against the shore. That’s the water doing what God designed it to do. That wasn’t the miracle. It was powerful. It was wonderful. But the miracle was the water parting and the wall of water stacking.

That’s the miracle. Or like we say, a sunrise. Oh, it’s the miraculous sunrise. Oh, it’s such a miracle and the sun was setting. No. No, it’s very predictable. I shouldn’t be able to predict a miracle in the true sense of the word for what it is in the narrow definition.

A MIRACLE IS AN INTERRUPTION

And so we need to have a different definition of a miracle. And if you’re talking in a very true sense, what is a miracle? A miracle and miracles are an interruption. An interfering and intervening into the, I’m going to choose my words carefully, the natural order of events. It is an interruption in the natural order of events. If things progress a certain way, they’re going to end up here unless there is an intervention, something that interrupts the process.

Two weeks ago, we were in Washington DC for our family vacation. By the way, if you’ve never been to DC, it’s awesome. I just wouldn’t go with families if any of your kids are under eight because it’s a ton of walking. A ton of walking. We walked Arlington and then the mall and then the Washington Monument and all that kind of stuff. And then you get the museums. It’s just a ton of walking. Great time. But for all of the things we did and we saw in Washington DC, perhaps the most memorable for my kids was that they got to ride on the subway. So there’s this metro train system in Washington DC. And my kids thought this was amazing because you get like a little card, scan it, turnstile, you get on the train, you go to the next stop. Super, super cool. And our last day, the kids were begging, “Can we ride the Metro subway one more time?

Can we ride the Metro one more time?” And I was like, “Okay.” And so we figured it out where we could go. And so the kids were super excited, but it meant that we had to ride the Metro at like four, five o’clock rush hour. So it’s everything you would pitch in your head. People in business suits standing shoulder to shoulder like sardines in a can, just packed into these trains. And we’re sitting there. We’re a family of seven. We’re five kids, me and Ashley, my wife, and we’re sitting there and it’s just a lot of people and we’re on urgent alert. Just making sure there’s all our kids are accounted for and not stranded in DC. And we go to the next stop, the next stop and we finally get to our stop. The train slows, doors open. And there’s a guy standing there, a tall guy with AirPods in and on his phone.

He’s just kind of scrolling, oblivious to the world around him. And he’s standing in front of the door. My son, Mark, sorry buddy.

My son Mark stands up thinking this is the line out the door. And so he stands very politely behind this man, one 1,000, two, 1000, and the guy’s not moving. And Ashley goes, “Excuse us.” And he’s like, “Oh, sorry.” And he steps aside. Mark goes off. Isaiah goes off. I think you went off. And then Selah goes off. And then Ashley goes off. She’s holding the hand of our youngest eight year old, Acacia, and I’m holding Acacia’s other hand. And as Ashley is stepping through the door, the doors start to close. And Ashley, mama bear, no, just pushes back against the door and is holding onto Acacia’s hand. And my fight or flights, I recoil. And she’s like, “No, I know Acacia’s doing all these.” And I say to her, “I’ll meet you at the next stop.” And she’s standing on the door and she’s like, “No, come on.” And she pulls Acacia through the door of the subway.

And I’m like, “Okay.” So I step through and while this is all happening, alarms are going off like the door is Just this horrible alarm. And the doors close. And as it slowly starts to speed away, the whole group of people on the train is just watching us.

And then all of our kids are in the train and the train leaves and we’re standing there alone on the platform in the train station. And all of our kids are not breathing and their eyes are wide as dinner plates. They’re looking at Ashley and you can see what they’re thinking. They’re like, “My mom can stop trains.” And in 10 years, the story’s going to be like she was in front of the train doing one of these or whatever. But the kids were amazed. Ashley demonstrated what a miracle is. There is an intelligent designer, an engineer who designed the trains to close with doors that open and close at every stop for a certain period of time. And he designed it to do this.

And the only way they didn’t follow the natural order of operation is if she interrupted the process so that we could pass through. That’s what a miracle is. It’s God interrupting the natural order of events. Now I know before I get too much further, if you’re here today and you’re just exploring Christianity, looking into Jesus, we’re so glad that you’re here. If you’re watching or listening later on, but you’re thinking kind of the more skeptical thoughts. That’s okay. You’re asking more of the rational kind of questions. You’re more of a naturalist. You’re asking kind of the scientific questions, but I would contend that it doesn’t matter what your worldview is. You have some room for a miracle if a miracle is an interruption. For instance, you believe there was nothing.

And then something interrupted the nothing. And there was everything. You believe that there was chaos. And then something interrupted the chaos and disorder and created your reason and logic. You believe that an amoral and indifferent universe, something interrupted that and gave you morality of good and evil, right and wrong. You believe that as a compound of results, a consequence of chemicals, that in your brain, something interrupted that process and that you love. And love is this emotion that’s more than chemicals. And in that definition, that a miracle is an interruption. Well, we all, I would contend every worldview has some type of a miracle that interrupts the process. It’s not a question of if you believe in miracles, but which ones?

Now, I don’t want to spend too much time on that. We’ve got other sermons that I’ve done on that kind of a topic, but I just think it’s important to point out because God does these miracles because it demonstrates something. And we can get into, maybe there’s a lot of reasons, but there’s two reasons that I think God does miracles that I want to cover today.

BECAUSE HE CAN

And the first reason is that he does miracles because he can. And this gets to kind of what I was just addressing a moment ago. When we struggle to believe the miracle, it’s a question of authority and power.

For instance, if God can’t do that thing, well, then he’s not God. Something else is God over him. So we would use the word natural and then super natural. Something that transcends the natural order above its, beyond, outside of it. And God, we would say everything below the natural is sub-natural. But God is super natural. That’s why he’s God. To quote this missionary named Hudson Taylor, and this is pithy, but I think it’s good. He’s either Lord of all or he’s not Lord at all. It’s memorable. It’s true. It’s true. If he can’t do it, then something is God over him. But if he’s supernatural, then what’s going to stop him? As a Christian, I would say the creator should be over creation that he created. And so God does miracle after miracle in scripture over and over, forcing the question upon us because he wants to demonstrate he can.

He’s over all things. Even the laws of nature and the laws of gravity. And C.S. Lewis, an author would once say, “The laws of nature suggest there’s a legislator.” But take a look at all of these scriptures that talk about how miracles prove God is who he says he is because he can do what God can do. Take a look.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

                                                                                                                                       Matthew 19:26

Jesus in Matthew 19 says, “With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” Nothing is impossible. Impossible is nothing.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

    Genesis 18:4

Genesis 18, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Nope.

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

                                                                                                                                                Job 42:2

Or again, Job saying, “I know you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” The point is with these miracles, God is demonstrating again and again that he can.

GOD DOES MIRACLES TO SHOW HE CAN

Because if he can’t, he’s not. Jesus later on says as much after he does a miracle and the crowd is going, “How is this happening?” He says, “Believe me. When I say that I’m in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe in the miracles. The evidence of the works that I do, believe in those themselves.” He’s forcing the issue on us. We want to escape and dodge it and he is making it unescapable because he wants to prove he can. Thomas Jefferson famously cut out all of the miracles in his personal Bible, took them out because he wanted to find the God of the Bible apart from all of these fantastic miracles, these impossible things. And he’s looking through his Bible trying to find God without the miracles.

And that’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face. That’s missing the forest for the trees. That’s removing meter from music and the song is lost. It’s unrecognizable because miracles are not a part of the message. Miracles are not ancillary to the message. Y’all, miracles are the message of the Christian faith. A little bit earlier at this baptism, that is one of the most memorable baptisms. It was awesome, man. I’ve never had water bottles thrown at me during a baptism. That was amazing. I loved it. It was fantastic. But during this baptism, we read a creed together on the essentials of the Christian faith, the non-negotiables, the one-on-one. This is the apostles creed for thousands of years. Remove one of these. You’re not Orthodox. You’re not a part of the faith. There’s something else. The Christian faith is this. That’s the Apostles Creed. Now with a brand new lens, look at the words of this apostles creed and notice how many miracles there are.

I Believe in God the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth

You believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth miracle.

And in Jesus Christ. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven. He will come to judge the living and the dead.

And Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary miracle. By the way, don’t look with arrogance on the past of like all primitive man believed in miracles because they didn’t have the science and the enlightenment. Stop it. Joseph knew full well where babies come from. And Joseph had to decide, can God do what he says he did?

Born of the Virgin Mary. Third day, he rose again from the dead. Miracle. It’s the central miracle. The Old Testament refers to the Red Sea about 50 sometimes because alluding to it, citing it, it’s like the definitive miracle of the people of Israel. But after Jesus, the resurrection becomes the miracle of the Bible. All of scripture points to that moment. Period. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. I don’t believe in the resurrection because the Red Sea parted. I believe the Red Sea parted because I believe in the resurrection. It is the watershed miracle. The Apostle Paul will later talk about how if Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is futile and you’re still in your sins. But Christ is raised from the dead. It is the definitive miracle. And it’s why God refuses to pull back and ease up on the miracles in the Bible.

He’s demonstrating he’s God all the way to conquering death.

And then he rises and ascends into heaven, miracle. And then he will come again to judge the living and the dead miracle.

I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting

And then third article, the third article of the creed, you believe in the Holy Spirit? The resurrection of the body. My body will be resurrected. Miracle. Life everlasting. Miracle. By the way, don’t talk about death being a natural part of life. I understand the sentiment, but when you’re comforting somebody who in saying, oh, it’s just a natural part of life, it’s not. You were not made to die. Which brings up the second reason that I think God does miracles. If you look at the apostle’s creed there and you kind of take it all in through the lens of miracles and you squint your eyes a little bit and then weigh it and meditate a little bit more, something else emerges.

Once God made heaven and earth there in the very beginning, Garden of Eden, everything’s perfect. There’s no more miracles. Why does God need miracles in the Garden of Eden? He doesn’t. It’s perfect. Everything’s running as it should. It’s like a car with, when you have the warranty, it’s perfect. After the warranty, right? Then the clunk, clunk happens. But when you have a warranty, the car runs perfect. That’s Eden. Everything’s running perfectly. He doesn’t need to intervene, interfere, interrupt the process. But then we sin. We fall under the curse of sin, death and the devil. And the world is perishing. And if things follow the natural order of events, we’re doomed.

Unless the God of heaven and earth interrupts the natural progress and becomes man. And then goes to a cross and dies for your sin. Not because you deserve it, but because he is love. He doesn’t have to do any of that, you guys. And that’s the second reason he does miracles.

TO SHOW HE CARES

Not just because he can, but because he cares.

GOD DOES MIRACLES TO SHOW HE CAN

He does miracles because he can, but he also does them because he cares for you. He loves you too much to let the natural progress of things take their course and you dispend an eternity apart from him. And so he sends his son to become a man, die your death in your place, that you may live his life in his place.

He cares. So there you go. There’s just kind of a conversation about miracles. Why God does them because he can and because he cares and their meaning and their importance.

PERSONAL MIRACLES

And if you’re privileged enough to just kind of sit and listen to this in an ivory tower and on the shelf, there’s their theory and philosophy of miracles and you can put it away. But I know there are people in this room who very much need a miracle now. It’s your back against the Red Sea and you see the chariots coming and you need God to intervene, interfere and interrupt with the natural progress of things. Because if things keep going down this path, I’m done for.

Your debt, your diagnosis, your marriage, you need divine interruption. You need a miracle. I was ironically writing this message this week and doing some reading and research and a friend called me because he had a terminal diagnosis. And I was talking to him about it and just spent a few moments on the phone with him. And then I said, “Can I pray for you?” And we started praying. And in the middle of that prayer, I found myself going, “Oof. Do I just ask God for the miracle? What do I do?” And as I’m praying, the words of Moses as he’s standing on the beach of the Red Sea honestly came to mind because I had just been reading them and it was just like they came to my mind. And I was like, “That’s it.”

But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.”

                                                                                                                                      Exodus 14:13

The people of Israel are standing there on the beach. They’re terrified. Chariots rumbling. Here they come.

And they tell Moses the problem. And then they tell God, what’s the problem? You’re going to help us? And I love Moses’s response. Take a look again. At Exodus 14:13, But Moses told the people. “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and see what the Lord will do to save you today.” Don’t be afraid. Stand still and see what the Lord will do to save you today. And that’s it. You tell God what’s wrong and then stand still and see what the Lord will do. That’s it. And so with my friend right there, I told God what was wrong about the situation and I asked him to rescue us.

And I don’t know what God will do. I don’t know how he will respond. Think about it. The people of Israel didn’t go, Hey God, can you make the sea part and stack up water as walls? Can you do that for? They can’t even, your mind can’t think of what God’s going to do. Just as he’s all powerful, he’s also all wise, way smarter than you and I. They didn’t tell God of like, here’s what we would like you to do. They just told him the problem and then stood still and watched. And God does the miraculous. And so I prayed with this guy. I told him the problem. I asked God to intervene and then to give us faith while we wait. I can tell you this, my friends. If you are here today and you are looking for a miracle, I’m sorry. I know that’s a very hard place to be.

And I am telling you I have seen the miraculous. I have seen x-rays overnight change entire body structures. I have seen people with cancer diagnosis stage four, go to a doctor and walk out with a clean bill of health and the doctor is having no idea. By nature of my work, I get involved in the hard moments and on a few very rare occasions I have seen things that defy logic. But I have also seen the miraculouses that I don’t know about. I 100% believe God has protected me from car accidents that could have happened. 100%. You don’t know what God has protected you from and how he has interrupted the natural order of things to save you. You don’t know.

But when I look back at my life and I look back at an empty tomb and an empty cross, I look back at an empty manager and when I look back at the Red Sea, I know what I need to know. And so do you. You don’t know how God will respond in all of his wisdom. You don’t know. You don’t know how. But you do know he can. And you do know he cares. You don’t know how God will respond. But just stand still. Tell him what’s wrong. Stand still and see what the Lord will do.

PRAYER

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, first of all, forgive us for our lack of faith, for the times that we doubt that you can do something like this. Increase our faith, God. I pray for every person in this room that we walk out of here believing just a little bit more that you can because you care. And I pray for any person in this room who’s the miraculous is not something they conveniently may need in the future. It’s something they need right now. Their back is to the sea and they see the chariots coming over the horizon.

First of all, God, let them know that you can hear their plea and their cry for help. And just as you let them know that you can, let them know that you care. By your Holy Spirit, come over them and communicate to their spirit that you care while they stand still and wait and watch to see how, not if, but how you are going to respond. Man, we love you so much, Lord. When we don’t know what to pray, we can always pray the words your son taught us to pray. As we say together:

Our father.

Who art in heaven,

Hollowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil,

For thine is the kingdom,

And the power,

And the glory

Forever and ever,

Amen.